Former President Donald Trump, on Sunday, congratulated Republican Susan Wright, the widow of former Texas Rep. Ron Wright, on her advancement to the state’s 6th Congressional District runoff to compete for her husband’s former seat.
Wright will face state Rep. Jake Ellzey, a fellow Republican, in a runoff election to be scheduled no earlier than May 24 after Democratic candidate Jana Lynne Sanchez conceded Sunday. The special election seat will remain red.
SUSAN WRIGHT, WIDOW OF LATE TEXAS CONGRESSMAN, HEADS TO RUNOFF
“Congratulations to Susan Wright on her great surge yesterday which made her NUMBER ONE and assures her participation in the TX-06 runoff against another Republican,” Trump said in his latest statement. “The Democrats have just conceded the race. Susan surged after I gave her an endorsement last week. Her wonderful husband is looking down, and is very proud of her!”
Wright, a longtime Republican activist, was winning about 23% of the vote late Saturday in the “jungle primary” special election to fill the seat. Ellzey won about 14%, a few hundred votes ahead of Sanchez, a former journalist.
“Let’s go win this! #MAGA,” Wright said Saturday in a tweet.
Trump previously announced his endorsement for the longtime GOP activist April 26 when he said she would be a staunch advocate for border security, anti-abortion issues, and the Second Amendment.
“Susan Wright will be a terrific Congresswoman for the Great State of Texas,” Trump said in a statement at the time. “She is the wife of late Congressman Ron Wright, who has always been supportive of our America First Policies. Susan will be strong on the Border, Crime, Pro-Life, our brave Military and Vets, and will ALWAYS protect your Second Amendment. Early voting is NOW underway — and the Special Election takes place on Saturday, May 1st. Get out and VOTE! Susan has my Complete and Total Endorsement!”
Ron Wright, who was 67 and battling cancer, died Feb. 7 after contracting COVID-19.
Susan Wright previously told the Washington Examiner that running for Congress was “nothing that I had ever thought about doing” until she was encouraged to after her husband’s death, but she received endorsements from Trump and the fiscally conservative Club for Growth.
Democrats in the area were vying to pick up the contested seat as 10 people initially entered the race against 11 GOP candidates.
Wright was the target of a series of robocalls prior to voting that accused her of “killing her husband” by intentionally giving him COVID-19. Her campaign referred the call to law enforcement and called it “disgusting gutter politics.”
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“When we heard reports of this criminal smear of a voicemail attacking Susan, we immediately referred the matter to law enforcement and started cooperating with authorities,” Wright’s campaign consultant Matt Langston said in a statement Friday. “Susan’s opponents are desperate and resorting to disgusting gutter politics because they know she’s the front-runner. I’m looking forward to someone going to jail over these robocalls.”
